1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a method of and apparatus for adjusting phases of bodies of rotation.
2. Description of Related Art
Typically, automatic transmissions include torque converters operationally interconnected with transmissions. Such a torque converter and a transmission are assembled by engagement of splined shafts of the torque converter, such as a pump shaft, a turbine shaft and a stator support shaft with splined shafts formed with a converter housing, a turbine support and a one-way clutch, respectively, of the transmission. In a conventional manner, while the torque converter is being assembled to the transmission, it is driven by manual operation so as to adjust phases of the splined shafts of the torque converter to phases of the splined shafts of the transmission so that the splined shafts are properly positioned when they are brought into engagement. Since torque converters are too heavy for workers to easily manually handle and drive, this is difficult.
In an attempt to automate transmission assembling tasks, a phase adjusting apparatus provided with a first phase adjusting unit, having a splined master shaft, and a second phase adjusting unit, having a splined master sleeve, has been proposed. After spline-coupling, on one hand, the splined master shaft of the first phase adjusting unit to a splined body of rotation of the torque converter and, on the other hand, the splined master sleeve of the second phase adjusting unit to a splined shaft of the transmission, either the body of rotation of the torque converter or the shaft of the transmission is driven, while monitoring phases of the body of rotation of the torque converter and the shaft of the transmission by the use of an encoder, so as to avoid a phase difference between the two. Such a phase adjusting apparatus is known from, for instance, Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 63-134385.
Although the phase adjusting apparatus described in the above-mentioned publication greatly simplifies assembling operation of torque converters to transmissions, it takes a relatively long time to perform assembling of the transmission. Further, since the first and second phase adjusting units are independently operated to adjust phases between a body of rotation of a torque converter and a shaft of a transmission, the apparatus is large in overall size and needs to be provided with a plurality of sets of motors and encoders, leading to a high manufacturing cost.